UN, Western donors urge Somalia to speed up vote process

NAIROBI — The UN Security Council and Western donors have urged Somalia’s parliament to speed up approval of new election rules to ensure an August vote is held on time, saying delays put recovery from conflict at risk.

Somalia, slowly rebuilding after decades of violence and still battling an insurgency, is due to elect a new parliament, whose members will in turn pick the president.

“The United States is increasingly concerned about delays in the 2016 Somali electoral process,” the US State Department said on Friday, adding the “legitimacy of Somali federal institutions” depended on a transparent and timely transition.

It urged parliament “to act swiftly” to enact the new rules.

The process to be approved by the outgoing parliament falls short of one-person-one-vote, which diplomats say would be too tough to stage because of the insurgency. But the process will expand the number of people picking the lawmakers.

In 2012, just 135 elders selected members of the lower house. Under the new rules, 13,750 people from across federal states will chose 275 members of the lower house. A new 54-seat upper house will also be created to represent the states.

The European Union, another major donor, said a parliamentary failure to act quickly “will jeopardise the Somali political process and set Somalia several years back”.

A delegation of UN Security Council diplomats echoed the comments in talks with Somali leaders in Mogadishu this week.

Egypt’s UN ambassador, Abdellattif Aboulatta, told a news conference in Nairobi on Friday that the delegation had urged Somali officials to approve the process “as soon as possible”.